Spatial and temporal variations in quality of drinking water sources of Dehradun district in India

Hydrochemical characters of drinking water sources of Dehradun district of Uttarakhand state in India were assessed by analysing the various water quality constituents. Analyzed water quality was interpreted by various statistical and other techniques like box and whisker plots, ANOVA analysis, piper diagram and water quality index (WQI). In the study, piper diagram illustrates that majority of samples fall in Ca-Mg-HCO3 hydrochemical facies, whereas some samples also show the dominant presence of Ca-Mg-Cl-SO4 ions. Graphical method of statistical analysis i.e., box and whisker plots indicates that significant seasonal variation was considered among the various seasons for most of the water quality parameters. Furthermore, ANOVA analysis also confirmed the results of the largest variation between the seasons as compared to between the sites. Considerable variation in water quality may be due to the geogenic and anthropogenic influence on the drinking water quality parameters. Moreover, WQI describes the suitability of all the sources for drinking purpose except two sources, which have unsuitable (Grade-E water) and poor (Grade-C water) water quality.